Atlas of North American Exploration
July 3, 2002 | Kathy Lingo
2 Comment(s)
I wondered if Edward Tufte or any of the rest of you have seen the
book The Atlas of North American Exploration by William
Goetzmann and Glyndwr Williams. I think it does a very effective
job of graphically and verbally presenting various historic
explorations throughout North America. I especially love the
1854 hand-colored lithograph (pp 168 – 169) done for the Great
Pacific Railroad survey. It is a sort of 3-D map showing a
panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains, and terrain that a
railroad could pass through.
How does it compare with the excellent Atlas of Early American History by Lester J.Cappon, Barbara Bartz Petchenik, and John Hamilton Long (Princeton 1976)?
I’m not familiar with the historical atlas by Cappon et al. Sounds
interesting, I’ll look for it!
The Goetzmann and Williams atlas was published in 1992. It is
organized around North American geographic explorations and
time periods, beginning with the Norse in 900 AD and going on
to the Race to the Pole in the early 20th century. It combines
historic drawings and maps made by the explorers, with
contemporary maps nicely annotated with the routes, dates, and
major events. Some pretty humorous maps by charlatans in the
1500s clearly document false explorations, discoveries of water
passages to the western sea, etc. I am not a history expert. I
found that I could understand the history presented in this book
much more clearly than the usual history book chapters of
endless text.